Favorite Toy of Halloween

NECA's Cult Classics series two New Nightmare Freddy Krueger.

Favorite toy of the day

Hasbro's Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Holographic Plo Kloon.

Favorite toy of the weekend

Mezco's Comic Book Hellboy Mezco Exclusive Trenchcoat Hellboy.

Favorite toy of the day

Art Asylum/Diamond Select Toys Deep Space Nine "Trials and Tribbleations" Tower Records Exclusive Benjamin Sisko.

Favorite toy of the day

Hasbro's GI Joe Sigma Six Storm Shadow.

Favorite toy of the day

Hasbro's GI Joe Sigma Six Snake Eyes.

Richard Guyot Review!

Max Factory's Guyver Bio Fighter Collection Richard Guyot action figure.


Sculpt
Excellent. Probably the best all around series of action features being made in the world at the below 10" scale, this is yet another amazing example of Max Factory's artistry. Usually known for doing PVC statues of anime properties, this is one of their first action figure lines and they haven't dropped their level of sculpt one bit. Richard Guyot(this is the English spelling, btw), as perhaps the chief villain of the Guyver stories, looks suitably menacing here. His scale is off by a small bit - according to info I found on the net, he should probably be an inch bigger here, at 10 1/2", but since the figure's already a HUGE 9" and change, I'm not going to quibble about it.


Paint
Excellent. With the price of the figure, you expect a good quality paint application, and you get it. Every figure in this line tends to feel almost hand-made, and each is an improvement on the last. The paint scheme is more or less accurate to the anime I believe, and he's suitably monster-ish while still being visually appealing. The premise of Guyver has a lot to do with biological armor, and though this figure is more of a transformation than a guy in armor, it maintains the visual of living armor quite well.


Articulation
Very good. Guyot has slightly less articulation than the other figures in the line, but I can tell just looking at him that it's due to his design preventing it. Still, a lot is packed in, the only articulation he misses is an ab joint and ball wrists. He has: ball neck, ball shoulders(hinge & swivel), elbow swivels, pin elbows, wrist swivel, waist swivel(seems like a ball joint actually but we get next to no up/down movement), ball hips, swivels below the ball hips, double hinged knees, hinged ankles. 22 points of articulation by my count, could've used a couple more. There's few poses he can't achieve however.


Accessories
Excellent. You can't really ever fault the japanese for the amount of accessories they like to include with a figure. Guyot's main accessory is a set of gold snap-on armor, that isn't source-accurate(he doesn't wear it in this form) but is cool nonetheless. One thing to worry about is some paint rub from the armor onto his body as you snap it on. Guyot also comes with the basic multiple extra hands, two fists, two spread hands, one gripping hand, and special to this character, a giant Unit Remover hand(the big gun looking thing) which is meant to be used to remove Guyver armor from an opponent. As with the rest of the series Guyot also includes a great flying stand(that inevitable goes to my Marvel Legends).


Overall
Excellent. Along with Guyver I this is the best figure produced in the line to date. The new plastic being used with Guyver I and now Guyot is far superior to the plastic used on earlier figures, which has a reported tendency to break easily. This plastic is softer, yet still sturdy, and feels almost luxurious. Guyot's manufacture is the best I've seen to date in the line as well, he has a real heft to him, and holds poses exceedinly well. This is the peak of the action figure craft.

Favorite toy of the weekend

Max Factory's Guyver Bio Fighter Collection Richard Guyot.

Favorite toy of the day

Toybiz's Superhero Showdown series two Iron Man.

Favorite toy of the day

Hasbro's Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Commander Gree.

Favorite toy of the day

Max Factory's Guyver Bio Fighter Collection Guyver III.

Favorite toy of the day

Hasbro's Star Wars Episode III: Return of the Sith Commander Bly.

Favorite toy of the weekend

Toybiz's Superhero Showdown series two Doctor Doom.

Favorite toy of the day

Mezco's Comic Book Hellboy series one Liz Sherman.

Done til SAGA! part one

Today marks the end of a collection for me, as I found the last figure I wanted from Hasbro’s Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, one Commander Gree. I’m going to take a moment and reflect back on this line, which has surprised so many with it’s quality and breadth.

I was against buying this line prior to release, having felt somewhat disenchanted with Star Wars toys after getting a few Episode I figures when they came out. They weren’t especially bad, but like the movie they were based on, felt rather boring. I completely skipped over the Attack of the Clones line after seeing how preposed they were - a big pet peeve of mine.

However I’d been hearing about the super-articulated Clone Trooper figures released for Episode II, those sounded like a fun toy, and I started looking into them on ebay, but the prices wanted were ridiculous, so I decided to ignore Star Wars entirely.

Unfortunately for me, Marvel Legends series nine was taking it’s sweet time arriving locally. As I scoured Walmart and Toys R Us several times a week after the Episode III toys were released, I couldn’t help seeing the huge sections alloted to them. Every trip, as I came up empty for ML9, I spent more time looking at the racks of EpIII figures. I’d missed out on the Clones, and did not see a single one until several weeks into April. Then one Saturday at Wal Mart, I saw multiple clones and Imperial Guards, and decided to give them a chance. I picked up a couple clones, and found out why they were being referred to as “Cracktroopers” - they were addictive. I was hooked.

I decided to only collect a few figures I wanted as they came out, just the really cool ones - clones, maybe a couple of Jedi. My next purchase was Count Dooku, and what good is a Sith Lord without any Jedi to fight. So I picked up my two favorite Jedi figures, Plo Kloon and Aayka Secura. And then two more. And more. And more...

In the end I didn’t buy all the figures released in the line, so I can’t claim a complete collection. I passed on most of the droids, wookies, some of the weaker variants (Collection 2 Yoda, the Vader). But I made up for the skipped over figures with multiples of the ones I liked. I ended up with three General Grievous’, the Preview, the Deluxe, and the first basic figure. I tried passing on the Senator figures but they were actually pretty good.

I even bought two vehicles, which I didn’t have room for - the Clone Trooper Gunship, and Obi-Wan’s starfighter. I’ll probably end up buying Plo Kloon’s starfighter when it comes out - why? It’s just cool.

The line overall is a major upgrade in quality from Hasbro. Sure, some figures are poor, like the battle droids which are just bad rehashes. Some greatly-anticipated figures like Commander Bacara turned out to be marred by insanely dumb action features. But by and large the figures that count have turned out great. Count Dooku, Pilot Gear Obi-Wan(#55), Super Articulated Clone Trooper #41, Kit Fisto, these are among some of the most purely fun figures of any line out this year.

Going to break down the figures from Return of the Sith in a separate update(yeah going to talk about them all! Don’t blame you if you don’t read it all, but might be a nice guide for some).

Done til SAGA! part two: the list

Collection 1
III-1: Obi-Wan Kenobi (Slashing Attack!) - action featured to death. Used his head with a Kit Fisto body to make a kit-bashed Super-poseable Obi-Wan, lasted me until #55. x1
III-2: Anakin Skywalker - another action feature victim. No good Anakins in this line. Bought him mainly for the better Dooku lightsaber x1
III-3: Yoda (Firing Cannon!) - Best Yoda of the line, nice figure, could be better, but if you're going to spend $6 on a two inch piece of plastic, this is the one to get.
III-4: Super Battle Droid - Terrible rehash, soft plastic, not articulated enough doesn't stand up well. x2
III-5: Chewbacca (Wookiee Rage!) - Poor. Articulation barely works, doesn't stand up well.
III-6: Clone Trooper (Quick-Draw Attack!) - action feature doesn't ruin him, due to having good basic articulation. x6(x4 regular white, x2 shock trooper variant)
III-7: R2-D2 (Droid Attack!) - Yawn. Passed. x0
III-8: Grievous's Bodyguard (Battle Attack!) - Tempted but the poor articulation and reported soft plastic made this a pass. x0
III-9: General Grievous (Four Lightsaber Attack!) - very nice, lots of fun. Should've been bigger, a good source of surplus lightsabers though. x1
III-10: Mace Windu (Force Combat!) - action-featured up, poor articulation. Poor Mace, no good figure for you yet. x1
III-11: Darth Vader (Lightsaber Attack!) - Two better Vaders out this year alone, bad action feature, bad articulation, big pass. x0
III-12: Emperor Palpatine (Firing Force Lightning!) - Surprisingly good, mine went to a custom though. x1
III-25: Tarfful (Firing Bowcaster!) - Wookies are a big pass for me. x0
III-26: Yoda (Spinning Attack!) - Bad Yoda of the line, passed. x0
III-27: Obi-Wan Kenobi (Jedi Kick!) - Worse than the #1 somehow. Useless action feature that doesn't even work. x1
III-28: Anakin Skywalker (Slashing Attack!) - Mascara Anakin. Poor articulation. x1
III-33: Clone Commander (Battle Gear) - Great. Nice articulation, no action feature, red version was pleasing to the eye(green was boring). x3
III-34: Clone Pilot (Firing Cannon) - boring design, poor articulation, dull. x1
III-35: Palpatine (Lightsaber Attack!) - Yuck. Action feature dominates design, useless. Good head sculpts though. x1
III-36: General Grievous (Exploding Body!) - Heard he doesn't stay together after first explosion. Passed. x0
III-41: Clone Trooper (Super Articulated!) - In the running for best figure. Crayon "battle damage' dirt designs only real flaw, articulated like heck. x4
III-42: Neimoidian Warrior (Neimoidian Blaster Attack!) - Better than you'd expect, but needs some knee articulation to be anything other than background. x3
III-43: Wookiee Warrior (Wookiee Blaster Bash!) - Wookie. Pass. x0
III-44: Destroyer Droid (Firing Arm-Blaster!) - Best droids in the line. x3
III-48: R2-D2 (Try Me!) - Tempted, but passed. x0
III-49: Commander Bacara (Quick-Draw Attack!) - Terrible action feature, used a #41 to fix him up. x1
III-50: Anakin Skywalker (Battle Damage!) - Weird looking, poor articulation. Passed. x0
III-54: AT-RT Driver (Missile-Firing Blaster!) - Liked these a lot, despite the weird helmet. x2
III-55: Obi-Wan Kenobi (With Pilot Gear!) - Best figure of the line. x1
III-56: Mustafar Sentry (Spinning Energy Bolt!) - Cool figure. Hard to stand up but worth having. x1
III-57: Commander Bly - Repaint of #33, not bad though. x1
III-58: Wookiee Commando - Wookies are a pass. x0
III-59: Commander Gree - repaint of a #41, my favorite Commander. x1
III-60: Grievous' Bodyguard - Same problems as his original version. x0
III-61: Passel Argente - rehashed figure of a non-entity in the film. Pass. x0
III-62: Cat Miin (Shu Mai's Aide) - See above. x0
III-63: Neimoidian Commander - I liked the original but don't need him. x0


Collection 2
III-13: Count Dooku (Sith Lord) - 2nd best is still pretty damned good. Evolutions version has him beat though. x1
III-14: Chancellor Palpatine (Supreme Chancellor) - Surprisingly good. Used in a custom though. x1
III-15: Bail Organa (Republic Senator) - Another good figure, needed hinge elbows though. x1
III-16: Plo Koon (Jedi Master) - Favorite Jedi, could use ball elbows but the swivel ones work well. x2
III-17: Battle Droid (Separatist Army) - Twigs. Not worth $6 for this rehash. x0
III-18: C-3PO (Protocol Droid) - Gay robot equals pass, despite him being the best ever made. x0
III-19: Padmé (Republic Senator) - Erratic paints, finally found a good one. First pregnant action figure ever? Disturbingly hot. x1
III-20: Agen Kolar (Jedi Master) - Average among the jedi, nice to have though. x1
III-21: Shaak Ti (Jedi Master) - Nice sculpt, used her for a custom though. x1
III-22: Kit Fisto (Jedi Master) - Great articulation, used for a couple of customs. x3
III-23: Royal Guard (Senate Security Blue) I - under the clothe robe a surprising amount of detail and articulation. Among the best in the line. x3
III-23: Royal Guard (Senate Security Red) II - See above. x3
III-24: Mon Mothma (Republic Senator) - Cut from the movie, has different hair from the character in Return of the Jedi, still not bad. Got her while waiting in the long weeks before popular figures. x1
III-29: Ki-Adi-Mundi (Jedi Master) - Another surprisingly cool Jedi. Why couldn't they make a Mace Windu this well? x1
III-30: Saesee Tiin (Jedi Master) - Another good Jedi. x1
III-31: Luminara Unduli (Jedi Master) - Used her for a custom. x1
III-32: Aayla Secura (Jedi Knight) - Favorite female jedi, preposed arms a pain in the ass. x1
III-37: Vader's Medical Droid (Chopper Droid) - yawn. pass. x0
III-38: AT-TE Tank Gunner (Clone Army) - Bad arm articulation, bad face paint applications, only figure in the line with ball hips. WTF? x2
III-39: Polis Massan (Medic) - Weird little guy, seems more Spielberg than Lucas. Pass. x0
III-40: Mas Amedda (Republic Senator) - actually thought this guy looked cool, never felt like picking him up. x0
III-45: Tarkin (Governor) - only released figure I've never seen. Poor articulation anyway. x0
III-46: Ask Aak (Republic Senator) - Amazingly good sculpt, hard to find but really recommended. x1
III-47: Meena Tillis (Republic Senator) - Same as above. Someone at Hasbro really got into these two Senators. x1
III-51: Captain Antilles (Senate Security) - Basically the same as Bail Organa, didn't need someone to stand next to him doing nothing. x0
III-52: Zett Jukassa (Jedi Padawan) - Lucas's kid got his own figure. Good for him. Not going to encourage nepotism though. x0
III-53: Utapaun Warrior (Utapaun Security!) - Heard the articulation was bad, passed. x0
III-64: R4-P17 - Not out yet. Not interested. x0
III-65: Tactical Ops Trooper (501st) - Not out yet. Not interested. x0
III-66: Plo Koon (Hologram) - Not too interested, when he's out I'll give him a look. x0
III-67: Aayla Secura (Hologram) - Not too interested, when she's out I'll give her a look. x0
III-68: Wookiee Heavy Gunner - Not out yet. Not interested. x0

Favorite toy of the day

Mezco's Comic Book Hellboy series one Lobster Johnson.

Mezco's Comic Book Hellboy series one Kriegaffe #10.

Mezco's Comic Book Hellboy series one Hellboy(grimace variant).

Favorite toy of the day

Toybiz's Marvel Legends series 10 Cyclops (variant).

Favorite toy of the weekend

SOTA's Street Fighter Round 3 Guile.

Been offline

Sorry for no updates the past several days, my internet connection's been down. Going to post-date some Favorite Toys so scroll down.